Kane County Sheriff Search and Rescue conduct two successful rescues over Christmas weekend

On December 23, 2025, the Kane County Sheriff’s Office received a report of an overdue hiker. Kane County Sheriff Search and Rescue (SAR) responded to a missing woman in the Sheep Creek area.

The woman was supposed to meet her family there after they hiked from one canyon to another. During the hike, a family member sustained an injury and returned to the trailhead. Unable to contact their mother, the remaining family members were stranded until one of them hitched a ride to where their mother was to meet them. There, they found her vehicle but discovered she was not there. By this time, it had been several hours since they had last seen their mother.

That family member then backtracked the original route in hopes of locating her. After several hours, he returned to the trailhead and reunited with his family, having made no contact with their mother.

Family members re­ported her missing after hours of searching. Kane County SAR resources were activated, including ground teams and air sup­port, despite challenging weather conditions and low cloud cover.

At approximately 9:30 p.m., SAR personnel were searching an adjacent slot canyon when they heard a faint voice. The voice was determined to be the missing woman, who was extremely cold and wet. Af­ter attempting to guide her out of the canyon, it was determined that she was too weak to self-rescue and would need to be extracted by the Kane County SAR Technical Rope Team. She was safely extricated and reunited with her family on scene.

The operation concluded successfully. It was later calculated that she had hiked approximately 18 miles and had ended up in a completely different canyon.

On December 27, 2025, SAR teams responded to a report of a miss­ing 70-year-old man who failed to return from a UTV ride in the Zion Pon­derosa / North Fork area. Family members became concerned when he did not return as expected and later located his UTV, which appeared to have rolled into a ravine.

Kane County Sheriff’s Office deputies and SAR personnel responded, along with the Utah De­partment of Public Safety (DPS) Aero Bureau heli­copter out of St. George. A coordinated ground and air search was conducted in challenging, muddy conditions. Thermal imag­ing located the subject in rugged terrain wandering away from his UTV.

The man sustained mi­nor injuries and was as­sisted by Kane County SAR and DPS to a safe location, where he was transported by DPS heli­copter to an ambulance. All responding personnel were accounted for, and the operation concluded successfully.

The Kane County Sher­iff’s Office encourages and reminds those hiking and recreating in these areas to always be prepared, even when planning to be out for a short time. Have a plan and the necessary resources. Tools such as a mobile phone with a map application or an applica­tion that allows loved ones to track your location can help in an emergency.